Greetings on another sunny January day in the rainy, gray city of Portland!

One of the lectionary readings this coming Sunday is 1 Cor. 13:1-13, in which Paul writes about love. Many of us have heard it read at many weddings and other love-centered occasions in our life as a church and our personal lives. It is appropriate at weddings, because it reminds us of the miracle that is being manifest before us: two people in love (with eros, philia, and agape love all blended together), recognizing what brought and will keep them together in the years to come, in good times and hard moments, sickness and health…well, you know the rest: love. The writer Marilynne Robinson wrote this in her book, Gilead: "Love is holy because it is like grace--the worthiness of its object is never really what matters."

Recognizing and celebrating this “thing” called love, especially with Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, a slight change of plans for this Sunday: music! Join Community of Pilgrims at the Oregon Bach Cantata Choir Concert at Rose City Park Presbyterian Church at 2:00 pm to 4:30, and bring a friend or family member! It will be over before the Super Bowl is over. Of course, J. S. Bach loved God with all his being, and showed his love for God by composing and playing music:"I play the notes as they are written but it is God who makes the music." Invite other friends and family members to join us at Rose City Park Presbyterian Church this Sunday afternoon (Feb. 3)! Here’s a link to their webpage for more information: http://www.bachcantatachoir.org

* Regarding the t-shirts: Please pick up your t-shirt this Sunday, and bring cash or a check made out to Community of Pilgrims, in the amount of $8 for adult M, L, and XL, and youth; and $12 for adult 2XL. Thank you!

* We also have plenty of beautiful leather bracelets for each member of the community! Pick one up this Sunday!

* In the coming months, Pastor Chris and I will be quoting from and referencing sections from the book, Wisdom Distilled from the Dailyby Joan Chittister, a Benedictine monk, who, in this book, focuses on the nature of living life in an intentional Christian community, which is our aim as Community of Pilgrims. We can either order books for those interested and sending in a request for so-many copies, or feel free to order it or buy it from your favorite book distributor. Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, Joan Chittister, San Francisco: Harper One.

____

Prayer Concerns and Celebrations

·Kathy's friend Beverly who has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

·Linda's brother Gary who also has Parkinson's.

·Quinn, the little girl in Los Angeles we have been praying for, who started her second round of stem cell therapy. Her family is quarantined in the hospital for a month because she developed sepsis the last time she had this therapy.

·Clementine, 6-year-old daughter of a Methodist minister, who suffered a brain hemorrhage and is recovering well at St. Vincent's Hospital.

·Federal workers who have returned to work.

·Ric and Jo Ann's friend Ken Miller who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer yet maintains a positive attitude.

·Ric and Jo Ann going to Guatemala in February.

·Donald, that we may get through this mess.

·People in the U.K. going through the chaos of Brexit.

·Children in Yemen, Syria, at the wall, lost in our legal system, and separated from their parents.

_____

Poem

The Stillness of the World Before Bach, by Lars Gustafsson

There must have been a world before the Trio Sonata in D, a world before the A minor Partita, but what kind of a world? A Europe of vast empty spaces, unresounding, everywhere unawakened instruments where the Musical Offering, the Well-tempered Clavier never passed across the keys. Isolated churches where the soprano-line of the Passion never in helpless love twined round the gentler movements of the flute, broad soft landscapes where nothing breaks the stillness but old woodcutters' axes, the healthy barking of strong dogs in winter and, like a bell, skates biting into fresh ice; the swallows whirring through summer air, the shell resounding at the child's ear and nowhere Bach nowhere Bach the world in a skater's silence before Bach.